YCC uses budget surplus

The Yale College Council will spend $20,000 next semester on the Eli Adventures program, which will send students to shows, sporting events and other attractions in New Haven, New York and Boston.

The YCC has a surplus this year, which it will put toward Eli Adventures, as well as a Yale-wide tailgate at The Game and additional support for class councils. The YCC’s budget for this year, which will be posted on its new website today, is $262,441, the bulk of which comes from the student activities fee, an optional fee undergraduates pay along with their tuition every year.

“We’re on solid financial footing, and that’s mostly a function of the fact that we’ve found ways to minimize costs for the events we are throwing,” Treasurer Brandon Levin ’13 said. He added that posting the budget online will lead to transparency and accountability between the YCC and the student body.

The Eli Adventures program is intended to compensate for some of the funding that was cut from residential college budgets this fall, Levin said. He added that students will enter a lottery to go on various trips, and that since the students will be selected from across the residential colleges the trips will also allow new students to meet.

Events Director Michael Chao ’11 stressed that YCC’s success in minimizing the costs of its events has made these additional expenditures possible. For instance, he said, savings of approximately $20,000 from last year’s Spring Fling helped this year’s council start off with a balance of nearly $40,000. This year’s YCC was able to keep costs of the Fall Festival and Fall Show much lower this year than last year, he added. Chao said the YCC will also have more money to spend on this year’s Spring Fling.

The Yale College Dean’s Office gave the YCC $3,000 this year. It has given the council more money in the past, but in recent years, its contributions to the YCC have been declining, Associate Dean for Student Organizations and Physical Resources John Meeske said. He added that the Dean’s Office funding will be entirely phased out within the next few years since the administration has realized that the YCC receives ample funding from other sources.

This year, the YCC received $173,000 from the student activities fee, in addition to $40,000 from the President’s Office.

Levin said some of the YCC’s unallocated funds have been set aside for class councils. Each class council except the Senior Class Council — which has its own sources of funding — gets $2,000 from the YCC at the beginning of the year. Levin said that this year, the sophomore and junior councils can each apply for an additional $1,000. The Freshman Class Council is not eligible because it receives additional money from the Dean’s Office, he said.

Sophomore Class Council President Omar Njie ’13 said that an extra $1,000 would be helpful, and would most likely go towards a large-scale dance in the spring. He also said the money could finance study breaks, and generally help his efforts to revitalize the SCC.

“More funding is a great step,” he said. “It offers more recognition to SoCo.”

The Junior Class Council does not have concrete plans for the spring, but President Angela Ramirez ’12 said they would apply for the additional funding and possibly use it towards career panels, a junior class barbecue or a “junior prom.” Overall, the money could help give juniors more opportunities to hang out with their classmates, she said.

The YCC has also purchased a block of tickets for the opening midnight screening of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” this Thursday.

Comments

JacksonJackson

A surplus? Horror of horrors! Shauna King should take it, use it to hire more administrators.

River Tam

If we have a surplus, that means the student activities fee is too high. Lower it.